#bjj notes

In competition, all matches start on the feet, and it’s illegal to pull without contact. That means that the grip battle is an element of every match.

It’s also happens to be an area of study that is often neglected. I know I’ve neglected it, but there’s no time like the present to rectify that. That’s why I’m studying Jimmy Pedro’s Grip Like a World ChampionDVD. It hones in on that topic like a…

And there are always two ways of looking at each role--

Being the hammer doesn't necessarily mean the best thing. Sure, you were probably the most aggressive and was the most dominant, maybe even getting several submissions on some of your training partners. But when you think about it, the best time to learn on the mats is when you're getting tapped. Displaying dominance and being able to sub everyone doesn't necessarily mean you've learned more about yourself, at least to me. Those times you're the nail being driven down by your other partners, no matter what rank they hold, it's the most enlightening moment in jiu-jitsu because you're being forced to see where your weaknesses are. You learn about how you got submitted or dominated and you begin the process of applying that knowledge, thus, growing as a practitioner.

Tonight I must've been submitted 7 or eight times but boy was it a good learning experience. I've had a few classes now where I felt like I was very dominant but on the inside I knew I wasn't learning much.

Headlock

Break the habit of getting your opponent/partner into a headlock + side control position. Since your top control is so high up on their body, your control over their posture is weak. Their legs are able to hook onto yours which will give them the opportunity to pull themselves into back mount position. Either know when to move out of that position right away when you fall into it, or give up that headlock hold altogether. Without chaining anything to it, it is a useless and dangerous position.

Relaxation

I noticed in certain bottom positions, you made parts of your body go limp. Under side control, you tend to feel overwhelmed with the weight of somebody on your chest, which as you know, any pressure on your chest has always triggered a stress reaction. Not just in Jiu-Jitsu. However, knowing when to relax, assess the situation, and being calm lets you work ways to escaping from the weaker position. You let your body physically relax, made very little effort to resist your partner's pressure, then at the right time, made explosive moves to scramble out of position.

Kimura grip

At one point, you had someone take your back. Luckily, the hooks weren't in because this gave you the chance to roll them onto their back/side by applying pressure to their arm using the kimura grip. From there, you forgot that you could've gone to side control while still maintaining the kimura had you thrown your legs over them. Instead, if I can remember, you let go of the grip and scrambled for side control. Kimura grips `help apply pressure for many situations, even if you don't have full control over positioning. Once or twice you were able to roll reverse side mount control by applying the kimura from the bottom. Its a hold that can lead to devastating results.

Armbar

Remember to keep your hips tight to their body. At times, you forget that small detail.

Open guard

I'm still in the process of understanding the use of my feet and legs in this position. Just keep playing around with the hooks and grips. It's tricky and will take time to understand.

After getting hold of the arm in the kimura grip, and after you shrimp to get onto your side, make sure you don’t slide your top leg too far toward your partner’s head. If it’s too far up, there won’t be enough pressure to keep them down from rolling forward to escape. Make sure that top leg is heavy and aligned to the center of the back.

After learning a great sweep technique from the collar choke in the guard position, I couldn't help but think of the kimura sweep and maintaining a kimura hold for control. Since I've been very open to using kimura/keylocks as a submission technique, I also want to use some of those techniques as a way to set up and chain other techniques. The kimura lock can be very tricky. When it is applied, your partner tenders to scramble to get their arm free or put themselves into a position -- no matter what -- where your attempt is negated. Sometimes, you can use this to your advantage. As they try to bring their arm back to center alignment (after you've placed your kimura grip on their arm, prompting their scramble), you can use their momentum to set up for another armlock technique.

If, let's say, you're on top side control and you have down their arm in a kimura grip, they will bridge over to that arm, exposing their back. If their second arm tries to protect the one that's in the kimura grip, you switch arms so that you now have them in a gift wrap. From there, you can play with another armlock attempt (armbar) or can move into position to take their backs. 

Use the kimura not as a submission technique but as a tool to set up for another submission technique, or positional advancement.

Judo -- you like to play rigid or like to play loose? For the rest of this month and next, play the loose game. Play with your posture, break your opponent's; make them constantly imbalanced. Play with momentum. If you pull them over, shoot your hips in and go for a throw.

Top side control. When you're anticipating getting rolled over, use the momentum to swing your legs over your partner while trying to keep the top half of your body heavy. If you do this correctly, you should land on your side, not on your back with your partner top side mount on you. Once hitting the floor, scramble to reposition yourself back into top side control. If you get rolled over again, perform the same move to land back into side control on the other side.

This reversal may not work with everybody. Test it out on various partners of different sizes and see what works best. So far, it seems to work fine with bigger guys. Share and demonstrate with your peers.